19th March, 2015
Collegium Civitas
In his newest book Ivan Krastev discusses the relationship between protest and democracy. Is protest a better instrument than elections for keeping elites accountable? Does the last wave of protests signal a radical change in the way politics will be practiced? Or are the protests all around the world simply a spectacular but ultimately insignificant eruption of public anger? Is it the technology, the economics, the mass psychology or just the zeitgeist that's caused this global explosion of revolt? Will it be the empowering energy of the protests or the conservative backlash against them that will shape the future of democratic politics?
Questions about the seminar & the project: mateusz.falkowski@gmail.com
Ivan Krastev is a political scientist, chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia, permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna (IWM) and a founding board member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. He is author of Democracy Disrupted. The Politics of Global Protest (2014) (Demokracja: przepraszamy za usterki (2015)) and In Mistrust We Trust: Can Democracy Survive When We Don’t Trust Our Leaders? (2013)
Listen to Iwan Krastev at TED.
Ivan Krastev o polityce protestu - debata Collegium Civitas i Fundacji im. Heinricha Boella - Heinrich Boell Stiftung Warszawa
Watch on YouTubeThe event was held as part of the project "The Politics of Protest. Understanding political protest in Central Europe" organized by the Warsaw office of Heinrich Böll Foundation in partnership with Collegium Civitas university. The Project under the academic supervision of Mateusz Fałkowski PhD. from the Collegium Civitas examines recent protests in six Central European countries. Between March and October 2015 six expert seminar discussions will examine protests taking place recently in following countries: Bosnia, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. Invited country experts will discuss the background, causes and forms of current mobilizations. The case studies of marches, riots and demonstrations (mostly of 2014) will help us to develop common analytical framework for understanding political protest in CEE countries. Each seminar will be documented in a short "country paper" which will be serve as a basis of a short book summarizing our findings and proposing analytical framework.